Happy International Women’s Day

I’d like to congratulate all the women who have defied the odds, overcome adversity, challenged the status quo or been confronted with #MeToo. Once upon a time women weren’t allowed to vote, and while so much has changed, we still fight for equal pay. As a young Black woman, knowing how far the women before me have come, testifies to perseverance. Despite underrepresentation, knowing who your core self is as a person, is the only truth.

We’re all born with labels, nine times out of ten assigned gender roles. It can bind us together, separate or even temporarily divide us, so it’s important to consider different factors that make today what it is.

I have found myself in male dominated situations and my ‘backs to the wall’ with all the ‘male banter’ & sexist jokes you could think of, and I’ve had to just roll with the punches.

Sisterhood

Women’s day, can only truly feel more validated if more women stick together. I’m not concerned with a battle of the sexes, but to embrace other women more authentically. Naturally, there’s differences based on personality traits, and we connect with who we connect with however, until we celebrate each other everyday, this need to compete with each other will remain. Healthy competition is good, but your threat might not be the other girl interviewee in the room full of men, this time round.

I love being a woman, and that there’s no one way of being other than myself.

I have my days where I feel really independent, and that I can do anything being I’m my own woman. Then there’s days where I think; its not easy, not as people may think it is sometimes. There’s a strength that I pull through from women in my life, including those that came before me and icons of today.